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| Is your school working hard to get new blood? |
| Yes, student numbers are rocketing up! |
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0% |
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| Yes, student numbers are going up. |
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11% |
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| Yes, student numbers are gradually going up. |
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| Yes, but student numbers are remaining constant. |
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| Yes, but student numbers are slowly declining. |
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22% |
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| Yes, but student numbers are rapidly declining. |
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| No, but student numbers are going up anyway. |
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| No, but student numbers are staying constant anyway. |
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| No, student numbers are rapidly declining and I am looking for a new job now! |
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| Other (please explain) |
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11% |
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| Total Votes : 9 |
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| Author |
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gaijinalways
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 2279
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 Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 3:56 am Post subject: Hungry schools seeking fresh blood |
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I am primarily thinking more of universities, but I know this issue also applies to international schools and private schools with younger aged students.
In Japan, a large number of universities (close to 50%) are not meeting their exam entrance goals, in large part to a declining birthrate and a far lower number of teen-aged adults.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090120i1.html
| Quote: |
| A poll released in August by the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan showed that 47 percent of 565 private universities suffered applicant shortages and did not meet their admissions targets in 2008. |
So even with schools accepting 100% of the entrance applications, they would still face declining student body numbers. Some of the blame in Japan's case would be that the government decided back in the early '90s that the country needed more universities, and deregulated aspects of the official university certification and recognition process. This encouraged some new unis to be founded as well as the conversion of some junior colleges to full 4 year universities (like one near my house). Of course now many of the newly founded unis are the ones in trouble with low and declining enrollment numbers.
Three obvious solutions spring to mind; accept more international students, accept adult students (students older than the traditional 18-22 year old range for 4 year university students), and offer more distance classes either online or by correspondence.
Unfortunately, Japan's MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) doesn't have reports in English later than 2005, though I have seen translated reports in the English language press here from time to time.
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/statist/index11.htm
| Quote: |
Universities providing
programs by correspondence (32) 35 － － (32) 35 100.0
and mass media
Graduate schools providing
programs by correspondence (17) 19 － － (17) 19 100.0
and mass media
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This is a bit telling, as only approximately 32-35 universities out of 726 offer correspondence classes.
From the same PDF file, only 115 universities of 726 offer evening classes.
This link is to a report below compares international students from various non-English speaking countries. I put in bold some significant statements about international student figures.
I find it disturbing that the Japanese unis I work for seem to spend more time and money encouraging our students to go abroad (which in itself, is not a bad thing, to go abroad that is) than increasing adult and international student numbers.
Luckily so far, the places I work at seem to have okay enrollment numbers, but rumors of lower standard students entering keep surfacing. In other words, the enrollment exams are getting easier and the passing scores keep getting lower, hence the quality of the average 'catch' is falling.
The unis I work at have less than 2% of their student bodies as foreign students. You might have noticed tat of the international students that japan attracts, only about 65k, a little over half are in university undergraduate programs. If we divide the number of foreign university undergraduate students into the approximate number of universities, we get 89.5 students per university. This tells me my schools actually have more foreign students than the average Japanese university, but the percentage is still woefully low when compared to some other developed countries' university programs.
I am concerned about my job security, but also as it is, we're seeing some classes (especially elective courses) have low enrollment due to a lack of foreign students and of course interested and/or appropriate higher level Japanese students. So I have to wonder, with international students paying more money, why don't Japanese unis do more to attract more foreign students (continued below quoted text)?
http://www.wes.org/ewenr/09oct/practical.htm
| Quote: |
....Data & Sources
According to the OECD, Japan had a 4.2 percent share of the global market of 3 million internationally mobile tertiary students in 2007, which equals approximately 126,000 students. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics reported that there were a total of 125,900 international students in Japanese institutions of higher education in 2007, or 4.5 percent of the 2.8 million internationally mobile students it estimates to be studying around the world.
The latest figures from Japan Student Services Organization, which include enrollments to May 2008, show that there were 123,829 international students in Japan, a 4.5 percent increase from the year prior. Japan�s five major source countries are all Asian, with a heavy majority coming from China (72,766), followed by Korea (18,862), Taiwan (5,082), Vietnam (2,873), and Malaysia (2,271). Over half of all students are studying at the undergraduate level (63,175), with 32,666 students at graduate school, and 25,753 at a professional training college.
Japan saw huge growth in international enrollments from a fairly constant average of approximately 50,000 students through the 1990s to the 120,000 level in 2004. Since 2004, international students numbers have remained close to 120,000. Asian nations have consistently been the main source of international enrollments, with much of the recent growth coming from a surge in the number of Chinese students attending Japanese institutions of higher education. While that number has dropped in recent years from a high of over 80,000 students in 2005, Chinese students are still by far Japan�s largest source of international enrollments.
Because Japan has one of the highest levels of tertiary education participation rates in the world, foreign students only represent approximately 3 percent of total tertiary enrollments. Japan has recently undertaken a number of initiatives aimed at increasing international enrollments with a goal initially stated at attracting one million foreign students to Japan by 2025. That goal has since been revised to a more realistic 300,000 students by 2020, after the initial targets were subjected to severe criticism from stakeholders in the Japanese higher-education sector.
Among the measures to attract students from overseas are increased English-language provision, more flexible credit-transfer systems and more funding for foreign scholars. Faced with a declining birth rate and a declining population of university-age students, these initiatives are designed, in part, to fill places at universities and colleges that might otherwise face closure..... |
Some of it has to do with the insularity of Japan with some Japanese unis quoted as saying they were concerned about not attracting Japanese students if they had too many foreign students (mis-perceptions of poor quality and perhaps a little xenophobia).
The problem of attracting working adult students is also culturally related, as many people in Japan don't consider going back to school once they started working, either full time or part-time (though that is slowly changing). I have considered looking into teaching in the night program at one university where I work (I used to work in one at a college), though it doesn't seem to offer undergraduate credit classes, but rather simply adult learning classes. With current unemployment and underemployment reaching record numbers in Japan, you would think this would be a golden opportunity for some Japanese unis in the Tokyo area to latch onto, yet they seem reluctant to consider dealing with working-age students.
Finally, the number of correspondence courses offered (32-35 out of 726 as related above) seems abnormally low. With the availability of the Internet and Skype, why on earth wouldn't Japanese unis with their 'supposed' high technology, not take advantage of getting new students who don't even need to visit your country (assuming they are not Japanese and not living in Japan)?
Is your school working hard to bring in new students? Have they been successful or is your student body declining (and with it possibly your job security and/or salary  )?
Please share your story.  |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 1:13 am Post subject: |
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To be honest, gaijinalways, I have no idea what my uni is doing to attract more students. My response on your poll would have been "other" for that reason. I can tell you that numbers are falling, though. Not drastically, but definitely going down.
What's more, so is the quality of students they let in. That's my opinion after 4 years here, and the opinion of others who have been here far longer. And, it's not just English ability that is declining. Ask any J teacher who teaches other subjects.
As for telling students to go abroad, I think the overall numbers are not in that direction. Can't remember where I read that.
| Quote: |
| Three obvious solutions spring to mind; accept more international students, accept adult students (students older than the traditional 18-22 year old range for 4 year university students), and offer more distance classes either online or by correspondence. |
Don't forget the one that is most likely to happen: lower the standards for admission!
| Quote: |
| With the availability of the Internet and Skype, why on earth wouldn't Japanese unis with their 'supposed' high technology, not take advantage of getting new students who don't even need to visit your country |
I think the key word here is "supposed". Trust me, there are a lot of archaic IT groups out there at universities! Plus, many unis don't allow Skype for fear of hacking/spammers. |
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Isla Guapa
Joined: 19 Apr 2010
Posts: 1520
Location: Mexico City o sea La Gran Manzana Mexicana
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| Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 1:34 am Post subject: |
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I imagine that there must be a lot of schools answering to the description in the thread title in Transylvania  ! |
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naturegirl321
Joined: 04 May 2003
Posts: 9041
Location: home sweet home
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| Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 1:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Going up, we teach required courses, Samsung owns our uni, the kids graduate and get jobs at Samsung. So lots of students come here!" |
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gaijinalways
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 2279
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| Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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| That sounds good at the moment. Pretty much all the Japanese electronics companies here are hurting now, doubt they would be ready to go that route. |
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microbabe
Joined: 03 Feb 2010
Posts: 115
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| Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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We are not promoting the school and numbers are slowly going down.  
Good move !! |
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